6
It was impossible to keep the Sabbath or the ancestral festivals, or even simply to profess to be a Jew.
7
Instead, out of bitter necessity, they had to observe the birthday of the king each month by eating the organs of sacrificial animals. When the Festival of Dionysus arrived, they were forced to take part in a procession honoring Dionysus, holding ivy wreaths.
8
At Ptolemais' suggestion, a decision was announced to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy against the Jews and that they should be made to eat the sacrificial portions,
9
and that those who refused to change to Greek practices should be slaughtered. At that point it was easy to see the miserable state that had arrived.
10
For instance, they brought forward two women who had circumcised their sons, with their infants hanging from their breasts. They dragged them around the city publicly, then hurled them down from the city wall.